OMINOUS SIGNS OF DANGER IN GERMANY.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XII, Issue 141, 16 June 1877, Page 4

OMINOUS SIGNS OF DANGER IN GERMANY.

(Fiom the Spectator). Just now a fit of zeal is sweeping over the military party. Europe is stirring; tbe nations are negotiating; Russia is threatening an old enemy; and every staff officer in Germany is suddenly aware of points where thera is imperfection, of a necessity for more, fortresses, more captains, more men, and above all, more sub-offioers. If certain combinations are made, anil' espeeially if there is a coalition against Germany, certain defences will bb found wanting, and a contingent possibility of a weak place in military arrangements is to the German .governing mind as hateful as tbe possibility of p casus omissus is to some English law,- , yers. Consequently, according to the Berlin correspondent of the Daily Telegraph — who at all events knows wbat officials wish to have said— the Government intends to ask for new fortifications in Western Germany, in ; Eastern Germany, on the coast, and round the arsenals, for a large number of new officers, and for ah increase to tbe effective reserves estimated at no less than 450 battalions, or, speaking roughly, at least 450,000 men. The immediate increase of expenditure, of which much must be permanent, if the increased force is to be kept up, will be £6,500,000, of which at least twoi thirds mast be supplied by the prd rata contributions from the federated Treasuries, many of which are at their wits' end to meet existing claims, while tbe strain on the population can only be estimated by the most experienced German experts. Upon the military necessity of ibis proposal we have, of course, no opinion to offer, but it is open to any politician to doubt whether any combination rendering such exhaustive precautions necessary is fairly within those chances which alone statesmen are fairly justified in taking into account. . . .'• • i Germany baa nothing to dread, save a coalition of the three Empires, ahd in the absence, of course, of German aggression, to think out a cause for such a coalition which the Germans oi Austria would deem sufficient, perplexes the very imagination. It is a mere political dream, yet it must' be to meet some such danger that Prince Bismarck is running the risk, first, of a great Parliamentary defeat— which he may be able to prevent; secondly, of exciting the suspicions of all Europe— which he probably contemns ; and thirdly, of inducing the most reflective and obstinate race in the world to ask whether the result is worth the terrible expenditure of happiness— which is, as we believe, the real danger. We believe it more than possible that the German people, incessantly asked for more service in barracks, for more drill, and more military irkeomeness, more submissiveness, and more money to be paid, without material return, may contract that invincible horror of a military system which is felt in England and America, nnd may, by a spontaneous popular movement, such as produced the Prussian army, refuse to endure it longer, and so bring the whole fabric to the ground The Germans are very brave and very ' obedient, but they are not a " onelegged " people, and do not, any more than any other race, like tbe consequence of great self-sacrifice followed by victory to be increased unpleasantness of life. They will perform any . doty; but if they are ordered to sleep in their helmets, they wilt either disobey, or, what is much more probable, will be wearied out by want of truly, relieving rest. Those! who govern in Germany do not like resistance, however slight, to their military demands, and those who are: governed are very apt to conceal their I exasperation uotil it has risen to. a' height st which they are scarcely; masters of themselves. Ii I hey came to! the resolution that the military eyaiem '; was unbearable, they wouid not tinker' it, but alter it witb a thoroughness of which Prince Bismarck and the great: staff officers would most certainly not' approve It is inj I resistance to new taxation that popular: discontent usually shows itself, and: Prince Bismarck may say that r.eistauce to new taxation is impossible, but he would be the fust to allow that a Germany, in which he was collecting taxes and men by executive decrees, by arrests, and by incesaant threats and urgings addressed to reluctant minor Governments, is not the Germany he seeks. He desires some willingness in the people, some

heartiness, of acquiesence, even if he is reluctant to trust them with control. It is tbat heartiness which, reasoning as outside observers, we suspect to i)e in danger under the hailstorm of demands produced by an overweening desire to make the machine more perfect than machine ever was yet, and more perfect than the work to be done nbsolytely re« quires. After all, a ( great £mpire^ thoroughly organised is not jikeaDutch \ dyke, in which a rat-hole is J as dangerous to safety as a yawning chasm. France will not attack Germany a week the later, or be defeated a week the sooner, , 5 because another half-million of quiet^je?man citizens, who might otherwise have been growing in strength, are, ordered, as a wise precaution, to sleep for two years in armour.